It has been established that head-down displays (HDDs), such as those commonly placed in the dashboard of commercial automobiles, negatively affect drivers' visual attention [1]. This problem can be exacerbated when screens are "busy" with graphics or rich information. In this paper, which is an extension of a user-preference study [23], we present the results of a driving simulator experiment where we examined two potential alternatives to HDDs for presenting textual lists. Subjects conducted a series of street name finding tasks using each of three system variants: one with a head-down display (HDD), one with a head-up display (HUD), and one with only an auditory display. We found that the auditory display had the least impact on driving performance and mental load, but at the expense of task completion efficiency. The HUD variant had a low impact on mental load and scored highest in user satisfaction, and therefore appears to be the most viable target for future study. International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular ApplicationsThis work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. ABSTRACTIt has been established that head-down displays (HDDs), such as those commonly placed in the dashboard of commercial automobiles, negatively affect drivers' visual attention [1]. This problem can be exacerbated when screens are "busy" with graphics or rich information. In this paper, which is an extension of a user-preference study [23], we present the results of a driving simulator experiment where we examined two potential alternatives to HDDs for presenting textual lists. Subjects conducted a series of street name finding tasks using each of three system variants: one with a head-down display (HDD), one with a head-up display (HUD), and one with only an auditory display. We found that the auditory display had the least impact on driving performance and mental load, but at the expense of task completion efficiency. The HUD variant had a low impact on mental load and scored highest in user satisfaction, and therefore appears to be the most viable target for future study.

Nowadays, personal navigation devices (PNDs) that provide GPSbased directions are widespread in vehicles. These devices typically display the real-time location of the vehicle on a map and play spoken prompts when drivers need to turn. While such devices are less distracting than paper directions, their graphical display may distract users from their primary task of driving. In experiments conducted with a high fidelity driving simulator, we found that drivers using a navigation system with a graphical display indeed spent less time looking at the road compared to those using a navigation system with spoken directions only. Furthermore, glancing at the display was correlated with higher variance in driving performance measures. We discuss the implications of these findings on PND design for vehicles.

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New technologies have made video calling in vehicles possible. Results from a driving simulator experiment indicate that video calling reduces visual attention on the road. While in some situations drivers would refrain from engaging in this activity, our results should serve as a warning to interface designers, lawmakers, transportation officials, and drivers that video calling presents a real distraction from driving.